Chains of Earth

Summary: Draco is kidnapped and forced to make a choice between taking his own life or becoming something less than human. Unfortunately he can't seek vengeance without the help of the Auror Department.

Chapter One

When we walk to the edge of all the light we have

and take the step into the darkness of the unknown,

we must believe that one of two things will happen.

There will be something solid for us to stand on

or we will be taught to fly.

-Patrick Overton

Draco was cold. Cold and damned uncomfortable. A shiver coursed
through his body, jolting him to awareness of things other than cold and
discomfort, although those were still present. Both sensations
intensified when he opened his eyes.

What the hell? He
sat bolt upright and then had to shut his eyes until vertigo and the
urge to vomit subsided. He swallowed hard against the taste of bile. Drugged, then. Or hit with a Cruciatus while he was down.

He
opened his eyes more carefully to examine his surroundings. Merlin, it
was cold. And nearly dark. His gaze tracked over the inky stone that
surrounded him on all sides, and followed the repeating pattern up and
up to the only spot of brightness—a patch of lead-coloured sky far
above.

"I'm at the bottom of a pit?" he asked aloud, as if hoping
his voice would dispel the illusion. His breath fogged the air and he
wrapped his arms around himself without bothering to climb to his feet.
Apparently the culprits responsible for bringing him here did not
particularly care if he froze to death. He knew without checking that
his wand would be gone. He checked anyway; it was.

Draco got to
his feet. As he did so, his robes brushed against something. The clink
of glass on stone drew his attention. Two vials lay at his feet, along
with a scrap of paper. He bent and picked them up. The writing was
unfamiliar, and very hard to read in the gloom.

Malfoy—you have been judged and found wanting. Others may forgive
your crimes, but we do not. It is well known that you never kill
directly, preferring to let others do that for you. Therefore, we will
follow your example and even offer mercy, of a sort. We have left you
two potions. The one with the black cap contains a strong poison. If you
wish to atone for your crimes, you will drink it. We cannot promise you
a painless death, but it will be quick, and your miserable existence
will come to a swift end.

If you are weak and choose to live, you may drink of the vial
with the white cap. In so doing you will live, but at the cost of your
humanity and your precious pureblood status. You will become less than
human, a creature reviled and feared, barely more than an animal. You
might even have the means to escape your prison. Choose wisely.

Draco stared at the vials in horror. Both were death sentences,
as far as he was concerned. The first would kill him painfully, but
quickly. Draco nearly threw it to the stone floor. He had no intention
of killing himself. He looked blankly at the other vial. Less than human. Reviled and feared. What the hell was it? Vampire blood?

Draco
tucked the vials into a pocket of his robes. He experienced a moment of
panic when they nearly slipped out of his numbing fingers in the
process. He steadied his nerves as they dropped into a pocket. Even
horrible options were better than none at all.

He clapped his
hands under his arms and stomped his booted feet. A few snowflakes
drifted down from the opening. Shit, that was just what he needed, even more
cold. He marched in place again and felt pain shoot through his toes at
the jolt of circulation. He walked the circuit of his small prison and
looked for any possible escape. There was none. He realized he was in no
mere pit, but a well, which explained the stone. He supposed he was
lucky not to be standing in water.

The walls were smooth stone
with mortared gaps too small for even fingertips to grasp. The exit was
so high overhead that he would have been hard-pressed to escape even
with a rope. Without his wand, he was helpless. And freezing.

Draco
sat down and huddled against the wall, trying to warm himself as much
as possible. The circle of light above grew steadily darker and the
snowflakes increased in number. He wished heartily for the warm cloak,
hat, and gloves he had been wearing when he was taken, but he supposed
the items would only prolong his suffering.

He was unsure how long
he held out. He tried running in place and waving his arms, but the
exercise only warmed him for moments and left him colder than ever when
the icy air whistled into his lungs. He shouted with rage for a long
time, vowing revenge on his kidnappers and cursing them with every vile
fate imaginable. He half-hoped his shouts would draw attention from
above, but no face appeared to view his torment.

He finally
slumped against the wall in defeat. Lethargy closed in on him like a
shroud and he knew it was induced by the cold. Soon he would want
nothing more than to lie down and succumb to it. He refused to allow
that. No Malfoy would lie down and die willingly. Even suicide would be a
better option.

Draco dug in his pocket for the vials. He held
them carefully, as he could no longer feel his fingertips. He looked at
the glass containers in sardonic amusement. He was lucky they had chosen
monochromatic caps. Colours would have been impossible to discern in
the thick darkness that surrounded him. As it was, it took several
minutes of blinking at them through ice-encrusted lashes to determine
the faint paleness of one cap that distinguished it from the other.

Inhuman or dead. It was a harder choice than Draco would have
imagined, especially with the cold crushing down on him and promising to
draw him into peaceful oblivion. In the end, it was the promise of
revenge that decided him. Inhuman was still alive, and alive meant vengeance.

It
was nearly a moot choice. His frozen fingers could not pry the cork cap
from the vial. He tugged at it and half-sobbed in desperation before
finally thinking to use his teeth. Even then, he had to try repeatedly
as the vial kept slipping through his hands. Finally, the stubborn cap
loosened and popped off. Draco's teeth chattered so badly he wondered
how he would drink it. He forced himself to relax and held the vial in
both hands, tipping his head back and dumping the contents into his
mouth.

It took all of his willpower to swallow and keep the potion
down. The taste was beyond vile and the texture was thick, oily, and
evoked images of vomit or coagulated blood.

When the contents hit
his stomach, Draco forgot inconsequential things like taste and texture.
He screamed aloud as pain exploded through him, starting in his gut and
roaring through every nerve ending. The agony went on and on until he
felt certain his unknown assailants had lied and both vials had been filled with the worst poison imaginable.

And
then the pain changed. It did not diminish, oh no, but altered in
intensity. Where Draco had previously been cold, he now felt dipped in
flame. He tried to look at his hands, certain they were on fire, or
melting, but more than the surrounding darkness blinded him. The pain
seemed to centre in his back, over his shoulder blades. He felt his
flesh literally ripping apart and he screamed again. It was too much,
and Draco gratefully succumbed to blackness.

His first awareness was that he was not cold. His second was that he
was still bloody uncomfortable, in spite of that. Draco opened his eyes
to dim light and blank stone. He sat up gingerly and noted with relief
that he was at least partially human. He could see his hands and they
looked perfectly normal. He did a quick mental check and thought he felt
okay. There was a heaviness pressing on his shoulders, but everything
seemed to be intact. He stood up carefully and nearly overbalanced; he
caught himself against the wall, still cataloguing. He remained in the
fucking well, which was no surprise. His feet were normal. Legs were
normal. Draco gripped his crotch. That was normal, thank Merlin.

Draco
heaved a sigh of relief and noted the huge cloud of fog left by his
breath. The floor was dusted with a thick layer of snow, but Draco was
not cold. He flexed his fingers and found no stiffness, no chill, and no
hint of frost damage.

What the hell am I, then? Vampire, after all? Werewolf? Either would be unpleasant, but not unbearable.

And
then Draco flexed muscles he had not previously owned and caught a
glimpse of feathers over his shoulder. He spun quickly, thinking himself
no longer alone, but he lost his balance again. He fell to the floor
and landed on something that gave him a most abnormal twinge of pain.
Draco fell on his own wing.

He stared at the edge of it protruding
from beneath his leg and gripped the feathers in disbelief. Feathers.
He reached over his shoulder and a sickening sensation caused his
stomach to lurch.

Wings.

He had wings.

The sheer unreality of it caught him by surprise and he laughed crazily. Wings. I am a winged Malfoy. The thought destroyed his brief flash of amusement. He was a Malfoy no more. He was not even human. He was a freak.
Draco's knees nearly buckled at the thought and his wings flexed
instinctively to maintain his balance. The movement dislodged the
remains of his robes—they had obviously been shredded when his wings had
emerged. Draco tore off the material and nearly threw it aside before
recalling the last vial. He retrieved it and placed it in a pocket of
his trousers, thinking he might yet need it. As an afterthought, he
picked up the empty vial, capped it, and kept it as well.

He
looked at the circle of light above. It was still lead-coloured and a
few random snowflakes drifted down. Those could no longer hurt him, at
least. He was not cold in the slightest.

Hawkebat:
Playing both Kotor I & II and Swtor I found the story line interesting and it held me until chapter 35 Very good story and plot flow until then, very few technical errors. I felt that the main character was a bit under and over powered, as it fought for balance. The last few chapters felt too f...

Ruby0h:
Overall I thought your story was really good! It drew me in right away and kept me interested as the story progressed. I loved the character of Kayla being inserted into this story, and the way she affected and shaped the life of the original story into something totally new and interesting. I lo...

Julia Summers PA:
Reading this now. It's fun, hilariously fabulous yet taste of what you desire in a unusual read. I will post an actual review when I am finished. But so far loving the flow and the story seems to keep me drawn

_JosephJacobson_:
I don't understand why this has such low ratings. I really enjoyed it!I think that the whole idea behind the plot had something very special and that was something that I really enjoyed. It was new, unique. I think that some of the writing was a little strange in places but overall it made sense ...

Prasino45:
Hi! I happen to see your updated chapter on FF.NET!It happened to be about you coming onto Inkitt with this story! I've been a fan for a while! I'm a scqualphie writer myself. I ship them HARD! Love this story! I'm gonna do a reread as you said you changed some things! Glad we both made the switc...

MegaRogueLegend666:
I love this story so much. It's impossible to describe my excitement with each new chapter in words. The author has such a good writing style, very good descriptions of the fighting and character descriptions/emotions. the plot is also amazing! This fanfic could be a side anime show or novel ......

Jean Tryon:
As a beta, I found this story outstanding!! Plot, grammar, phraseology, etc Rachel gives us it all. She takes the story into the future from where due South ends. She is an exacting and thoughtful author.

LouiseJ2:
I enjoyed the detail you went into with regards to the case. It made the UNSUB appear believable. The crisis in the middle of the story was my favorite part, very dramatic but not over the top. I feel like sometimes pairings can be overdone but I liked that some of the relationships were a little...

dd1226:
I love reading about other countries and I think this story about Cambodia after Polpot creates awareness of the tragedy that happened there and the actions of the U.N. to hold elections. The heroine of the story is easy to relate to, a modern, middleaged woman looking for an adventure, wanting t...

Flik:
Hi! ^.^ huge fan of yours on ff.net! When I saw the note about this contest on The Way We Smile, I couldn't help but rush over here, create an account, and vote! XD Seriously love this story and would recommend it to anyone! :D best FT fanfiction out there. Amazing story, amazing concept that wa...